STATE HOUSE ROUNDUP -- Around the turn they come

Horse racing in Massachusetts has been on the decline for many years now, but horse-trading is alive and well on Beacon Hill.

The Legislature came down the homestretch last week with blinders on looking to finish what it could before the holiday recess, while Gov. Charlie Baker had his eye on next year -- which happens to be his re-election year -- as he filed new legislation and took executive actions to ramp up the fight against opioid addiction.

House and Senate lawmakers were too preoccupied with their own business to get too deep into the opioid debate, but it was never far from mind as criminal justice reform took center stage in the House.

House leaders set aside two days to debate the justice bill prepared by Reps. Claire Cronin and Jeffrey Sanchez, but the first day -- Nov. 13 -- featured more idling than engine revving as trade-offs were being hashed out for hours behind the closed doors of the speaker's office.

"It's not a pretty process," House Majority Leader Ron Mariano mused outside the House chamber.

Pretty or not, the bill got done, and justice reform advocates were pleasantly surprised after months of hand-wringing and worrying that the House would try narrow the focus of the legislation and only tiptoe into the waters of the some of the more-controversial topics.

The final bill does away with mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug crimes, restricts the use of solitary confinement, allows for the expungement of juvenile records and make other reforms to bail and felony larceny statutes. Progressives may not have gotten everything they wanted, but felt listened to and believe there's always a chance to make further gains as negotiations begin with the Senate.

Hard-line crime-and-punishment types were also left wanting after a passionate debate over Baker's proposal to make drug dealers whose products lead to death eligible for a sentence of life in prison.

Republicans and Democrats argued that a strong message needed to be sent to those peddling death on the streets, but Reps. David Linsky and Chris Markey, two former prosecutors speaking for the side that prevailed, said even their shared disgust with those enabling addiction couldn't convince them that such a punishment would pass legal muster.

As the debate was going on in the House, Baker called a press conference to roll out the next phase of his administration's fight against opioid abuse and addiction.

With proposed law changes and executive actions designed to improve access to treatment and educate young people on the dangers of opioids, Baker said Massachusetts is far from declaring "mission accomplished" despite the reduction in overdose deaths over the past six months.

The overdose-reversing drug Narcan has played a role in holding down the death toll, and the governor, among other ideas, pitched making it available over the counter and brought back a revised version of his controversial proposal to involuntarily hold patients for 72 hours in emergency rooms if they show signs of addiction and being a danger to themselves. The retooled proposal would instead allow medical clinicians to have patients involuntary transferred to treatment centers, instead of kept in emergency rooms, for up to 72 hours if they are considered a threat to themselves or others. After 72 hours, medical personnel would be able to petition the courts to keep the patient longer.

"If you have this opportunity to engage somebody, you should take advantage of it," Baker said.

The governor's opioid initiative was met with skepticism from two of his chief Democratic challenges for re-election in 2018.

Newton Mayor Setti Warren called the governor's proposed new investments in treatment a pittance compared to what is needed, and former state budget chief Jay Gonzalez's senior advisor suggested Baker's push had to do with recent polling showing the opioid crisis to be tops on voters' minds.

The scandal swirling around the State Police over an revised arrest report has also given Democrats fodder for the campaign trial.

Baker swore in Kerry Gilpin as the newest colonel superintendent of the 2,100-strong State Police force after the abrupt retirements of Col. Richard McKeon and his top deputy. McKeon stepped aside after admitting to ordering a trooper to delete certain details that he deemed impertinent to the charges brought against the daughter of a Dudley trial court judge.

The governor has said repeatedly that McKeon was wrong to get involved, but has also said over and over that the editing of arrest reports is not an uncommon practice. "Horse-hockey," charged State Police Association President Dana Pullman, who suggested Baker was being fed moldy hay.

The governor does not intend to make any findings of his staff's review of the situation public, but officials within the administration have indicated that Worcester District Attorney Joe Early's office had contact with the State Police, potentially explaining how McKeon got involved in the first place.

A full accounting, however, might have to wait for Attorney General Maura Healey to complete her investigation, or for the attorneys representing the two troopers who have filed suit against the State Police to suss it out through depositions.

Baker has offered vocal support for all ongoing investigations, including one launched Nov. 16 by Gilpin out of her office to get to the bottom on the incident, but Warren believes it should go even further.

The candidate called for an independent review and a public disclosure of the findings.

The final week of formals wasn't all about teeing things up for the second year of the legislative session. Some major bills did reach the governor's desk, at least one of which appears a sure thing to earn his signature.

The so-called ACCESS bill, which was negotiated among lawmakers, health insurers and advocacy groups, would guarantee access for women in Massachusetts to contraception without a co-pay and mandate insurance coverage for emergency contraception at pharmacies.

Baker already said he supports the compromise hashed about between the Massachusetts Association of the Health Plans, Planned Parenthood and others, and appears likely to sign the bill.

Another bill landing on his desk last week would undo the 2002 ballot law that required English immersion instruction for foreign students lacking a mastery of the language. The final compromise would give school districts flexibility to use different teaching methods for English-language learners who aren't thriving in immersion classrooms.

Baker's feelings on the bilingual education bill are a little more murky.

On all bills, except a capital bond bill in the House, Sen. Thomas McGee and Rep. Paul Heroux appear to have cast their final votes. McGee bid farewell with little drama as he prepares to take over as mayor of Lynn, while Heroux took another route, verbally jousting with his critics who don't want him to keep both jobs as state representative and mayor of Attleboro before ultimately emailing Speaker Robert DeLeo Nov. 17 to say he would, in fact, leave.

Heroux's departure announcement comes after he refused to vote up or down on the criminal justice bill, and tried to vote on a capital infrastructure bill but was not recorded, perhaps, he says, because he nudged his portfolio into his voting buttons.